Prepare for a traffic spike

A campaign, a sale or a news mention. What to check in the week before.

A spike finds whatever was already marginal. Check these in the week before, not the morning of.

Checklist

1. Confirm the landing page is cached

   Cached pages scale almost indefinitely. A campaign page with a session cookie on it does not.

2. Watch the query string

   Ad platforms append tracking parameters. Unless they are on the allow-list, every click is a cache miss. Tell support which parameters you will use.

3. Test the checkout under load

   Cart and checkout always run PHP. That path sets the ceiling on a store.

4. Review scheduled jobs

   Move imports, backups and syncs out of the campaign window.

5. Tell us

   A ticket with the date, expected volume and the landing page lets us pre-warm capacity and watch the site while it runs.